


Follow me Home

by indoissetep



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Brief mention of animal cruelty, M/M, Pre-Slash, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 13:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6053674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indoissetep/pseuds/indoissetep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn finds a strange little creature in the woods and is cruelly manipulated into taking it back to base with him. Totally against his will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Follow me Home

**Author's Note:**

> I have absolutely zero excuses for this. This is shameless teeth-rotting fluff.

Finn had not meant for this to happen. It hadn’t been his decision. Or rather, it had been his decision, but he had been cruelly manipulated into making it.

If anybody asked, _when_ anybody asked, this was the story he was sticking to:

He had been taking a walk through the woods that surrounded the Resistance’s base on D’Qar. Dr Kalonia kept saying that taking short walks would do him good and help speed up his recovery. No running, no strenuous training. Just walking, leisurely.

Finn could do that. Finn had never done that before in his life, but he could do that.

He had been uneasy at first, unaccustomed to doing something that could so easily be labled a _waste of time_ , unaccustomed to having time to waste. But he had soon found that he really enjoyed these little walks.

When the endless buzzing of people and droids and ships around base got to be too much for him. When all of it made his ears ring and his back ache, he came to the forest to be alone. Though that wasn’t quite right. He didn’t feel _alone_ , he felt welcomed. Comforted.

 _Well, that was a lot of mush over a simple walk in the woods,_ Finn thought. So, anyway, back to his story.

Finn was taking a walk through the woods. He walked slowly, both because his back was still stiff and his legs unsure, and because he wanted to take in all of his surroundings.

There had been woods on Starkiller, of course. Ancient, snow-covered pinetrees stretching for miles. But it was not that easy to appreciate your surroundings when you were marching at double time while wearing sixty pounds of armor and carrying a fully-loaded blaster. Having a drill sergeant yelling straight into your ears through the comm link in your helmet to “SPEED IT UP, YOU LAZY SACKS OF BANTHA SHIT!” didn’t help either. 

So now Finn took his time. He listened to the gentle, uncomplicated sounds of the forest, until a particular sound drew his attention. Something moved in the underbrush, making the leaves scratch against each other. Finn’s eyes quickly darted towards the source of the disturbance and saw a dash of black disappear between a large tree’s roots.

Finn made his way towards it carefully, not knowing much about the native fauna of D’Qar or how ravenous it might turn out to be.

He peared over one thick root and there, cowering among the dead leaves, was a tiny creature the likes of which Finn had never seen.

Here’s what he gathered about the creature:

  1. It was small. Larger than a shreek-mouse, but considerably smaller than a Hoojib. Something about the weird proportions between its eyes, head and comically large ears told Finn that it was very young. A baby whatever-it-was.
  2. It was covered in fur that was the same color as the void of space, which is a fancy way of saying that it was completely black. Even its nose, which was hairless, was black. Only a pair of strange gunmetal eyes stood out from all that darkness.
  3. It had five appendages – four legs and a skinny tail – and only one head. Finn could see needle-like claws poking out of its paws. Better stay away from those.
  4. It was very cute.



Finn didn’t have much experience with _cute_. The First Order had been severely lacking in terms of cuteness. He knew that BB-8 was cute. And Rey was cute, too, but in a different way. At times, he also thought that Poe was cute, but that was also different.

He sat down on one of the big, thick roots in order to study the cute creature more carefully.

“Hey there, little... you. How’s it going?” he ignored the voice in his head that asked why he was trying to strike up a conversation with some random, probably non-sentient creature.

The creature curled up into an even tighter ball, trying to disappear among the leaves. Its round eyes never left Finn, and he saw that it was trembling. That made his heart constricted painfully in his chest.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

He extended a tentative hand towards the little being, who shrunk away from it and shook even harder.

“It’s alright,” he said, drawing his hand back a bit, “I get it. I’m a big scary monster. I guess most things probably look big and scary to you, ‘cuz you’re so tiny. And you must be confused, ‘cuz this is your first time being out in the big scary world on your own.”

 _Woah, there!_ He thought. _Projecting much?_

He picked up one of the dead leaves from the ground, one that wasn’t soggy and disgusting, and began twirl it absently. That got the little creature’s attention. Its eyes zeroed in on the leaf immediately, and its body began to unfurl.

“There you go.”

Finn moved the leaf around like a skittering bug, and the creature followed it intently, its body close to the ground and coiled for attack. It pounced, and Finn snatched the leaf away at the last second.

Stars, it was adorable! Aaaaand Finn could not let himself go down this road.

“Look, I think I should go,” he said, straightening up, leaf forgotten, “Your mother will turn up soon and she’ll probably be really pissed at me. Unless your species doesn’t take care of its offspring... But, in that case, you’ll be fine on your own.”

Matter settled, Finn stood up – a bit stiffly – and began to brush the dirt off his pants.

The little creature _shrieked_.

It sounded like a cross between an alarm siren and BB-8 when it was angry, and it was way too loud to have come from something so small.

Finn stared down at the black thing in disbelief. It had moved closer and was now standing right next to Finn’s right shoe. The shoe was bigger than its body.

The being opened its tiny maw again, bright pink and lined with mean, pointy teeth, and let out another shriek.

“No way. Not a chance,” Finn informed it and started to turn, intent on leaving.

Pain shot up from his right calf.

“Oooow! What the kriff?!”

The creature had latched onto Finn’s leg and was climbing it like a tree. Its sharp claws ripped through the fabric of his pants and pierced his skin, and oooooh, what if it was venomous? Oh no, this was bad!

“Get off!”

Finn jerked his leg, trying to kick the monster off, but afraid of doing it too hard and flinging it against a tree. It clung on and climbed on, resolute. When it got too close to Finn’s crotch, he grabbed it desperately and managed to unhook its claws from his pants.

He held the little black imp at arms length and tried to convey all of his anger through his stare. The creature began to vibrate slightly.

_What the actual kriff?!_

It looked at Finn with pitiful, liquid gray eyes. Finn could swear it was staring right into his soul.

“You can’t come with me!” he told the creature firmly.

It shrieked back at him.

“No!”

Shriek.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

So, long story short, the creature was now sitting on Finn’s bed inside his cramped little room in the barracks.

Finn had already given it some water from the ‘fresher, which it had lapped up happily. He hadn’t been able to find anything edible in his room, though. Back in the First Order, trying to stash away food to snack on in between meal times had meant certain punishment.

In fact – he thought, looking at the black thing on his bed – trying to hide anything had meant certain punishment.

Once, when Finn had been about twelve, some cadets from another squad had found a tiny shreek-mouse in the snow, almost dead. They had kept it in a box under one of their bunks for nearly two months, feeding it protein bar crumbs and nursing it back to health, before Captain Phasma finally found it. Finn had seen her crush the little mouse under her chromed heel in front of the white-faced boys. Then she had given all four of them triple sanitation duty for a month and said it should serve as a warning to anyone else who got any ideas about bringing vermin into the barracks.

“I can’t keep you,” Finn told the little black animal.

It stared at him. Into his _soul_.

“I’ll get you something to eat at dinner, but then you’ll have to go!”

The thing yawned hugely, curled up into a little furry ball on top of Finn’s blanket, and went to sleep, just like that.

Finn returned hours later to find the creature still asleep on his bed. Though now it was sprawled with its front legs sticking up and its mouth slightly open, the tip of a pink tongue poking out.

It woke up when Finn sat down next to it, and padded over to climb into his lap.

Finn produced a napkin filled with many different bits of food that he had been able to smuggle from the mess hall. He presented each little bite to the creature individually.

It sniffed the bread and deemed it uninteresting.

It sniffed the piece of malla fruit, licked it cautiously, and recoiled. Unacceptable.

It sniffed the steamed urghan root and batted it away. Utterly unacceptable.

_Yeah, me too, buddy. Me too._

Last was the meat. It barely even smelled it before gobbling it up.

“You’re very picky. You wouldn’t last a week in the First Order,” Finn told the creature sternly.

It swallowed the meat and looked up at Finn indignantly. Certainly that wasn’t all Finn had brought?! It voiced its displeasure loudly.

“Insubordinate, too! No talking back to your superiors!”

More yelling.

“That’s it. Drop and give me twenty, cadet!” he poked the creature gently with a finger. It gladly allowed itself to be pushed over, landing on its back and kicking its gangly legs around madly, trying to catch Finn’s hand. It clearly thought this was the height of fun.

“You need a name. Names are very important,” he mused, teasing the little beast absently, “But I don’t have a lot of experience naming things. I suppose it should be something cute, like Fluffy or Taffy or something...”

The thing _was_ terribly cute. Terribly, obscenely, unfairly cute.

“Oooow!” and it was viciously attacking Finn’s hand. It felt like it was entirely made of teeth, and it had latched onto Finn with surprising strength. “Alright, forget cute! I know what I’m calling you.

 

 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“Finn? Buddy, you in there?”

The question and accompanying knock on the door came the next morning, while Finn was playing with the creature using the lace from one of his boots. The two of them stopped dead at the sound.

“Yeah, just a sec!”

Looking around the room frantically, Finn’s eyes finally settled on the blanket at the foot of his bed. He threw it over his playmate and rushed to open the door.

“Hey, Poe, hey. Hi, what’s up?” he said, leaning very, very casually against the doorframe.

“Hey,” said Poe slowly and with a slight quirk of his eyebrows, “I’ve been looking for you. I wanted to show you the new... Why is your blanket moving?”

 _You fool! Stay still!_ was what he thought. What he said was, “What? No, it’s not”.

He tried to block Poe’s view of the bed, but the pilot leaned sideways to look around him.

“Yes, it is. There’s something moving under it.”

Finn opened his mouth to say... He wasn’t sure what, but then BB-8 rolled right over his toes and into the room like a shot, and what came out of his mouth was:

“Ouch! BB-8, wait!”

Too late. The droid stopped in front of the bed and extended it’s little claw arm to lift the edge of the blanket. A small black head with big gray eyes poked out from underneath it.

BB-8 let out a stream of excited beeps.

“A cat?!” Poe exclaimed, equally excited.

“A what?”

Poe didn’t reply. He was already pushing past Finn to get into the room and to the bed.

“Where in the galaxy did you find a kitten?” Poe asked, sitting down next to the blanket cave and its little inhabitant. The creature was regarding BB-8 warily, its big goofy ears flattened back and its back bent in an arch. It hissed, like water hitting hot metal.

“I thought you said it was a cat,” Finn frowned.

“Hey there, lil’ buddy,” Poe gestured for BB-8 to back up and give the creature – cat? kitten? – some space. “Hey, it’s okay. A kitten is a baby cat,” he said to Finn.

Oh, that made sense. Kinda.

The kitten was still glaring intently at BB-8, its black fur like a brush on its back. Poe pushed the blanket away and brought his hand close to the cat very slowly, like Finn had done.

The kitten seemed startled at first, breaking its stare with a little jump, but then it relaxed. It allowed Poe to run a hand over its head, and immediately leaned into the touch. Poe was bent over the little animal, one leg curled up on the bed and a relaxed smile stretching over his face.

BB-8 let out a long cooing sound, and Finn was glad that the droid had voiced his thoughts for him.

“I found it in the woods,” he said, remembering Poe’s question, “I think it got separated from its mother. It was cold and scared and... and... It followed me here.”

Poe shot Finn a quick look that clearly said “Yeah, whatever you say, buddy”.

The kitten plopped down sideways on the bed, exposing a tummy where light pink skin showed under its fur. Poe’s eyes crinkled up, and he attacked that soft tummy with his fingers.

“You’re so kriffing cute! Yes, you are! Have you named it yet?”

“Erm, yeah... Rathtar,” said Finn, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.

“Ra...” Poe’s hand froze mid-tickle, and he turned to look at Finn, “You named your kitten Rathtar?”

“It seemed really fitting.”

The kitten chose that perfect moment to tackle the hand that was hanging over its stomach and sink its teeth and claws into it. Poe yelped and drew his hand back, grimmacing. Finn thought he saw blood.

“Yeah, no kidding. Perfect name.”

Poe regarded the cat a little warily for a moment, but then his expression softened again.

“Anyway, I think it’s defective,” said Finn, moving closer to the bed to watch Poe and the kitten. The pilot had found the bootlace and was dragging it across the bed for Rathtar to chase.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

“No, see, when I pick it up I can hear this weird whirring sound,” he picked up the kitten just as it was about to pounce on the bootlace, and brought it close to his ear. There it was, the little engine running inside its chest, “I think there’s something wrong with its breathing.”

Poe actually laughed at that, but he stopped as soon as he saw how worried and confused Finn looked.

“It’s purring,” he said, eyes still laughing, “That means its happy. It likes you.”

 _Oh_ , thought Finn. He looked down at the tiny purring thing in his arms.

“Oh,” he said, eloquently.

That was a new thought. Finn had gotten used to people liking him, to not being treated like an outcast all the time. He had even gotten used to BB-8 and C-3PO liking him, in their own unique droid way. But being liked by this little thing, so fragile that he was almost afraid to break it, having its unconditional love and trust, was different.

“I think we need to tell General Organa about this,” Poe cut through his thoughts.

And, just like that, Finn was thrust back into the reality of the situation.

“Right,” he should have seen this coming, “Can’t  you just... Please, just let me take it back into the woods.”

“What?” Poe was looking at him with a furrowed brow.

“Just let me release it. I’ll, I’ll do it far from the base. I’m sure it won’t come back. It’s just... I don’t want it to get put down...” Finn finished hurriedly.

Rathtar was still vibrating against his chest, warm and alive.

“Finn. No one’s gonna put down any kittens. That’s...” he scrunched up his face and shook his head quickly, “No one’s gonna do anything bad to Rathtar.”

“But it’s vermin.”

BB-8 let out a loud beep.

“It’s not vermin, it’s a cat!” Poe looked almost appalled, “It actually hunts vermin, it could be really useful. Plus, it’s a pet.”

“What’s a pet?”

“It’s what Rathtar is to you. It’s an animal that you keep close just because you enjoy its company,” he smiled kindly, “But, like I said, I think we should introduce Rathtar to the General. Get her all-clear to keep it here.”

“And if she doesn’t allow it?”

“Then we’ll find someone to adopt it. Someone’s family could take it. Heck, I might even send it home to my dad, he loves cats. Or we could have it on board one of our cruisers. The Corellians believe that cats bring good luck aboard ships. Point is, nobody is gonna exterminate Rathtar, Finn.”

Thirty pounds of tension seemed to slide off Finn’s shoulders. There was still a chance he would have to say goodbye to Rathtar, but at least it wasn’t in the way he had imagined.

“That’s... Alright. Alright then,” he sat down heavily on the bed and looked down at the kitten in his lap, “You hear that, Rathtar? It’s gonna be okay.”

Finn realized that he had sat very close to Poe and that the pilot was watching him, eyes moving over his face slowly.

“What?” Finn’s voice came out a little louder than he had meant for it to.

He felt like it was him who had something vibrating inside his chest now.

“How did you manage to turn out like this?” Poe asked.

“Like what?”

“Just...” he waved his hand, indicating all of Finn. His eyes fell on Finn’s left hand, the one that wasn’t currently petting Rathtar. He grasped it and brought it up to examine it more closely. He traced the many scratch marks that crisscrossed over Finn’s skin, first with his eyes, then with his thumb.

“The First Order tried to beat everything good out of you, any empathy, any compassion. And you still turned out so... Good, and loving, and impossibly _kind_.”

He grasped Finn’s hand more tightly and kissed a particularly nasty scratch. Poe’s lips were warm and soft against his skin.

“You’re an impossibility,” he added, and Finn felt the words as a warm puff of breath.

Finn was certain that Poe could feel his pulse drumming away in his veins. His head felt light and fizzy.

“Yet here I am,” said Finn.

“Yet here you are,” said Poe.

“Meeeew!” said Rathtar.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

In the end, General Organa did allow Finn to keep his pet, saying something cryptic about being reminded of her aunt’s pittins.

The rest of the litter and Rathtar’s mother were found a few days later and brought into the base. Jess adopted one, and so did Iolo Arana. Admiral Ackbar went a little crazy when he saw the kittens and took two. The mother ended up with General Organa and took to spending most of the day lounging regally in the Resistance’s main control room.

As for Rathtar, he – for Dr Kalonia had examined the kitten and announced that _it_ was a _he_ – continued to room with Finn. Poe showed up nearly every night to play with the cat and, after a while, he started coming over for other reasons, too. Eventually, he stopped going back to his own room altogether, and instead spent the nights curled up with Finn and Rathtar.

The bunk was a tight squeeze for two grown men and a quickly growing cat who took up more space than it absolutely had to, but they managed.

**Author's Note:**

> Rathtar pretty much matches the description of the spukamas, which is a Corellian housecat, but I decided to simply use the words cat and kitten, because why the hell not?


End file.
